editorNPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94Award-winning journalist Patti Neighmond is NPR's health policy correspondent. Her reports air regularly on NPR newsmagazines All Things Considered , Morning Edition and Weekend Edition . Based in Los Angeles, Neighmond has covered health care policy since April 1987. She joined NPR's staff in 1981, covering local New York City news as well as the United Nations. In 1984, she became a producer for NPR's science unit and specialized in science and environmental issues. Neighmond has earned a broad array of awards for her reporting. In 1993, she received the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award for coverage of health reform. That same year she received the Robert F. Kennedy Award for a story on a young quadriplegic who convinced Georgia officials that she could live at home less expensively and more happily than in a nursing home. In 1990 she won the World Hunger Award for a story about healthcare and low-income children. Neighmond received two awards in 1989: a George Polk Award forNPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94Patti NeighmondWed, 20 Sep 2017 04:14:44 +0000Patti Neighmondhttp://ktep.org
Patti NeighmondAriana Marciano is adding to her collection of about 75 tattoos at Body Electric, a tattoo and piercing studio on trendy Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. "I think they're so cool and I think they're visually really nice to look at," she says. There's a ram's head, an elk, a green-and-peach praying mantis, a love bug and a moth. Today she's getting a ladybug. "I love bugs," Marciano, 23, says. "I think they're kind of overlooked." In about 20 minutes, a small ladybug with dots on its back and a bit of rusty orange takes its place on her elbow. Marciano is part of a trend; 38 percent of millennials have at least one tattoo, according to the Pew Research Center, and 23 percent have a piercing somewhere other than an earlobe. That compares to just 6 percent of boomers with tattoos, and 1 percent with other piercings. The nation's pediatricians, who want teenagers and young adults to be aware of potential health issues with tattoos and piercings, released their first-ever recommendations onTeen Wants A Tattoo? Pediatricians Say Here's How To Do It Safelyhttp://ktep.org/post/teen-wants-tattoo-pediatricians-say-heres-how-do-it-safely
115569 as http://ktep.orgMon, 18 Sep 2017 11:23:00 +0000Teen Wants A Tattoo? Pediatricians Say Here's How To Do It SafelyPatti NeighmondCount the number of hours you sit each day. Be honest. "If you commute an hour in the morning and hour after work — that's two hours, and if you sit at an eight-hour-a-day desk job that's 10," says epidemiologist Loretta DiPietro of the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University. "Then you come home at, say, 6 p.m., eat dinner and crash into your recliner for another three to four hours," says DiPietro. "That's 13 to 14 hours of sitting." Being immobile like that for many hours each day does more than raise the risk of a host of diseases . DiPietro and her colleagues have good evidence that, as the years wear on, it actually reduces the ability of older people to get around on foot at all. In a study of sitting and walking ability that surveyed people ages 50 to 71 across 8 to 10 years, those who tended to sit the most and move the least had more than three times the risk of difficulty walking by the end of the study, when compared to their more activeGet Off The Couch Baby Boomers, Or You May Not Be Able To Laterhttp://ktep.org/post/get-couch-baby-boomers-or-you-may-not-be-able-later
114705 as http://ktep.orgMon, 04 Sep 2017 09:10:00 +0000Get Off The Couch Baby Boomers, Or You May Not Be Able To LaterPatti NeighmondWalk down the aisle of your local pharmacy or grocery store and you'll be bombarded by a dizzying array of bleaching products, from gels and strips to paint-on bleach. Cosmetic tooth bleaching is a $3.2 billion global industry, according to market analysts , and it's getting bigger fast. It's easy to see why. Strikingly white, bright smiles dominate TV and social media, and people tend to prefer the bright teeth of youth rather than those that have been yellowed by trauma or age. But if you decide that you, too, want a brighter smile, it's hard to know where to start. "I'm a dentist, but I'm also a consumer and I can certainly get confused by all the products," says Ruchi Sahota who practices in Fremont, Calif. A colleague of hers describes the tooth product aisle in stores as the "dental aisle of confusion," because there are so many options. "You can easily get bewildered standing there trying to figure out which option is the best," she says. The dilemma isn't helped by regulators.Navigating The 'Aisle Of Confusion' To Whiten Your Teethhttp://ktep.org/post/navigating-aisle-confusion-whiten-your-teeth
113364 as http://ktep.orgMon, 14 Aug 2017 09:01:00 +0000Navigating The 'Aisle Of Confusion' To Whiten Your TeethPatti NeighmondFor more than a decade, the number of women choosing bilateral mastectomy to treat breast cancer has been on the rise. That's the case even for women with early stage breast cancer, cancer in only one breast or non-invasive breast cancer, which has raised concerns that women are getting more surgery than they need. Now a study suggests that trend may be turning around. Repeat surgeries including mastectomies declined by 16 percent from 2013 to 2015, after medical groups recommended a smaller cancer-free margin around tumors removed by lumpectomy. The results were published Monday in JAMA Oncology. It's important to consider the history here. Before the recommendations were published in 2014, there was disagreement in the medical community about how wide the margin of cancer free-tissue removed along with the cancer should be. Some doctors wanted 2 millimeters or more of normal tissue beyond the edge of the cancer. Other doctors believed that 1 millimeter of healthy tissue was fine.Fewer Women Need To Undergo Repeat Surgery After Lumpectomyhttp://ktep.org/post/fewer-women-need-undergo-repeat-surgery-after-lumpectomy
108999 as http://ktep.orgMon, 05 Jun 2017 17:20:00 +0000Fewer Women Need To Undergo Repeat Surgery After LumpectomyPatti NeighmondSleek, high-tech wristbands are extremely popular these days, promising to measure heart rate, steps taken during the day, sleep, calories burned and even stress. And, increasingly, patients are heading to the doctor armed with reams of data gathered from their devices. "They're essentially asking us to digest the data and offer advice about how to avoid cardiovascular disease," says cardiologist Euan Ashley , associate professor of medicine at the Stanford University Medical Center and Stanford Hospital and Clinics in northern California. And, being somewhat near Silicon Valley, he says he gets a lot of tech-savvy patients bringing fitness-tracker data to appointments. The problem, he says, is that he just didn't know how reliable that data was. So, he and colleagues decided to study seven of the most popular devices and compare their accuracy to the gold-standard tests that doctor's use. They looked at two metrics: heart rate and calories burned. For heart rate, the fitness trackersFitness Trackers: Good at Measuring Heart Rate, Not So Good At Measuring Calorieshttp://ktep.org/post/fitness-trackers-good-measuring-heart-rate-not-so-good-measuring-calories
108295 as http://ktep.orgWed, 24 May 2017 18:33:00 +0000Fitness Trackers: Good at Measuring Heart Rate, Not So Good At Measuring CaloriesPatti NeighmondThis is a story about conflicting medical advice. One group of doctors, represented by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, recommends yearly pelvic exams for all women 21 years of age and older, whether they have symptoms of disease or not. But the American College of Physicians, representing doctors of internal medicine, says that potential harms of the exam outweigh benefits and recommends against performing pelvic examinations unless a woman is pregnant or has symptoms of disease such as bleeding, pain or signs of infection. In March, the influential U.S. Preventive Services Task Force concluded there just wasn't adequate evidence to recommend for or against annual exams. A study published Thursday says that when women were told that one prominent medical association strongly recommends against yearly exams, the number of women opting to have the exam dropped from 82 percent to 39 percent. "This is a dramatic, enormous effect for a five-minute educationWomen Opt To Skip Pelvic Exams When Told They Have Little Benefithttp://ktep.org/post/women-opt-skip-pelvic-exams-when-told-they-have-little-benefit
107937 as http://ktep.orgThu, 18 May 2017 20:50:00 +0000Women Opt To Skip Pelvic Exams When Told They Have Little BenefitPatti NeighmondWhen 18-year-old Hannah Vanderkooy feels extremely tired or anxious, she heads to a spacelike capsule for a nap — during school. Like many teens struggling to get good grades and maybe even a college scholarship, Vanderkooy doesn't get enough sleep. And she's not alone. Various studies indicate that chronically sleepy and stressed-out teenagers might be the new normal among U.S. adolescents who are competing for grades, colleges and, eventually, jobs. Studies have shown teenagers actually need between nine and 10 hours of sleep a night. But the vast majority (69 percent) aren't getting it. Enter "napping pods." They're essentially egg-shaped lounge chairs that recline, with a circular lid that can be pulled over the chest to shield against light. "It just sort of envelops you in a really nice darkness, with soft lighting behind you," says Vanderkooy, a frequent user of the pods. She says she typically gets only four to five hours of sleep a night. There's soft music playing in the podStressed-Out High Schoolers Advised To Try A Nap Podhttp://ktep.org/post/stressed-out-high-schoolers-advised-take-nap-pod
107650 as http://ktep.orgMon, 15 May 2017 09:00:00 +0000Stressed-Out High Schoolers Advised To Try A Nap PodPatti Neighmond"Yo-yo dieting" — where people lose weight and gain it back again — doubles the risk of a heart attack, stroke or death in people who already have significant heart disease. That's the conclusion of an international study published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers reviewed weight data gathered over several years from 9,509 people with significant heart disease who had taken part in a trial of a cholesterol-lowering statin drug. The study was sponsored by the drugmaker Pfizer. "Our findings suggest that we need to be concerned about weight fluctuation in this group that is already at high risk due to coronary disease," says lead researcher Dr. Sripal Bangalore , a cardiologist at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City. Over a period averaging 4.7 years, people who had the greatest fluctuations in weight — about 8.6 pounds — had double the risk of a heart attack, stroke or death, when compared with those who experienced weight fluctuations of less than 2Yo-Yo Dieting May Pose Serious Risks For Heart Patientshttp://ktep.org/post/yo-yo-dieting-may-pose-serious-risks-heart-patients
106752 as http://ktep.orgMon, 01 May 2017 08:28:00 +0000Yo-Yo Dieting May Pose Serious Risks For Heart PatientsPatti NeighmondFour out of five older Americans with hearing loss just ignore it, in part because a hearing aid is an unwelcome sign of aging. But what if hearing aids looked like stylish fashion accessories and could be bought at your local pharmacy like reading glasses? That's the vision of Kristen "KR" Liu, who's the director of accessibility and advocacy for Doppler Labs , a company marketing one of these devices. She thinks a hearing aid could be "something that's hip and cool and people have multiple pairs and it's fashionable." Liu, who has severe hearing loss herself, helped design a device designed to let people with hearing loss blend in. One person may be using the technology to stream music or take a phone call, she says. Another may be wearing it to amplify speech and hear the conversation. "And no one is going to know the difference," Liu says. "So you're wearing technology in your ear, proudly." The device is a small circular instrument that fits snugly in the ear. It can be adjustedIs It Time For Hearing Aids To Be Sold Over The Counter?http://ktep.org/post/it-time-hearing-aids-be-sold-over-counter
106302 as http://ktep.orgMon, 24 Apr 2017 09:00:00 +0000Is It Time For Hearing Aids To Be Sold Over The Counter?Patti NeighmondOne of the most common reasons people go to the doctor is lower back pain, and one of the most common reasons doctors prescribe powerful, addictive narcotics is lower back pain. Now, research published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association offers the latest evidence that spinal manipulation can offer a modestly effective alternative. Researchers analyzed 26 studies involving more than 1,700 patients with lower back pain. The analysis found spinal manipulation can reduce lower back pain as measured by patients on a pain scale — like this one — from zero to 10. Spinal manipulation, which is typically done by chiropractors, physical therapists, osteopaths, massage therapists and some other health providers, involves applying pressure and moving joints in the spine. Patients undergoing spinal manipulation experienced a decline of 1 point in their pain rating, says Dr. Paul Shekelle , an internist with the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the RandSpinal Manipulation Can Alleviate Back Pain, Study Concludeshttp://ktep.org/post/spinal-manipulation-can-alleviate-back-pain-study-concludes
105519 as http://ktep.orgTue, 11 Apr 2017 17:06:00 +0000Spinal Manipulation Can Alleviate Back Pain, Study ConcludesPatti NeighmondNew research published Monday adds fuel to an ongoing debate in the public health community over whether a few extra pounds are good, or bad, for you. Earlier research found that being somewhat overweight, but not obese, may result in a longer life. But today's study in the Annals of Internal Medicine suggests that being slightly overweight may actually decrease a person's life span, which is more in line with conventional wisdom about weight. So who's right? It's all about study design and statistical analysis. Let's start with the newest study, headed by demographer Andrew Stokes at Boston University School of Public Health. His group found a 6 percent increased risk of dying from any cause among individuals with a history of being overweight. Although Stokes says that 6 percent "is only a modest increase," it's still "extremely worrisome" because so many Americans are overweight. "Our findings confirm that there is no benefit of being overweight on risk of death, and indicate that Carrying Some Extra Pounds May Not Be Good After Allhttp://ktep.org/post/carrying-some-extra-pounds-may-not-be-good-after-all
105035 as http://ktep.orgMon, 03 Apr 2017 22:02:00 +0000Carrying Some Extra Pounds May Not Be Good After AllPatti NeighmondWhen Kathleen Muldoon had her second child everything was going smoothly. The delivery was short, the baby's APGAR score was good and he was a healthy weight. "Everyone said he was amazing," says Muldoon. But when a doctor noticed that Gideon was jaundiced, everything changed. Nurses put him under a fluorescent light to treat the problem. But it didn't work. Instead, he developed a red rash all over his body. Blood work indicated newborn Gideon was infected with a virus Muldoon had never heard of: Cytomegalovirus or CMV – a virus that can cause severe birth defects. Muldoon, 40 of Peoria, Ariz., remembers the pediatrician coming in to deliver the bad news. "He couldn't even make eye contact," she says. Gideon was diagnosed with extensive brain damage, spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy , visual impairment, epilepsy and microcephaly – that's the neurological condition also caused by the Zika virus , where the baby's head is abnormally small. Gideon spent the first four weeks of hisFor Gideon, Infection With a Common Virus Caused Rare Birth Defectshttp://ktep.org/post/gideon-infection-common-virus-caused-rare-birth-defects
104563 as http://ktep.orgMon, 27 Mar 2017 09:06:00 +0000For Gideon, Infection With a Common Virus Caused Rare Birth DefectsPatti NeighmondAn influential advisory panel says there's not enough evidence to determine whether annual pelvic exams should be routine for women who aren't pregnant and have no symptoms of disease. "We basically concluded that we didn't have enough evidence to recommend for or against," says Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo , an internist and epidemiologist at the University of California, San Francisco who chaired the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force panel asked to evaluate the best evidence on whether the exam is a good screening method. Her panel, which calls for more rigorous research on the question, reported its recommendation Tuesday in JAMA, the journal of the American Medical Association. In absence of solid evidence one way or the other, the panel advises that each woman confer with her doctor about when and how often she should get a pelvic exam, given her age, medical history and other factors. A pelvic exam, typically performed by an obstetrician-gynecologist or other primary careAre Routine Pelvic Exams A Must? Evidence Is Lacking, Task Force Sayshttp://ktep.org/post/are-routine-pelvic-exams-must-evidence-lacking-task-force-says
103338 as http://ktep.orgTue, 07 Mar 2017 16:32:00 +0000Are Routine Pelvic Exams A Must? Evidence Is Lacking, Task Force SaysPatti NeighmondCopyright 2017 NPR. To see more, visit RACHEL MARTIN, HOST: You may have noticed curvier bodies are slowly making their way onto billboards and fashion magazines. DAVID GREENE, HOST: And yet a new survey finds most models are still pressured to be ultrathin, and this pressure can trickle down to young girls. NPR's Patti Neighmond reports. PATTI NEIGHMOND, BYLINE: At just 16, Brittany Mason moved to New York City to model. She was a quick success, but she wasn't prepared for the constant pressure to lose weight, often along with shame. BRITTANY MASON: I've literally had an agent cuss me out and scream at me and say that my - he used a different word - but said that my fat butt was too fat - I was too fat to ever make it in the industry. NEIGHMOND: Mason says every slender model she knows has also been told to lose even more weight. Psychologist Rachel Rodgers with Northeastern University recently surveyed models. Many said they were not only told to lose weight but were threatened ifModels Are Still Pressured To Be Ultra-Thin, Survey Sayshttp://ktep.org/post/models-are-still-pressured-be-ultra-thin-survey-says
102822 as http://ktep.orgMon, 27 Feb 2017 10:02:00 +0000Models Are Still Pressured To Be Ultra-Thin, Survey SaysPatti NeighmondMany men over 65 with low testosterone levels say their sense of well-being, not to mention sexual function, isn't what it used to be. That's why some doctors prescribe testosterone replacement. But the effectiveness of testosterone has been controversial. Studies of the risks and benefits have been mixed, and the Food and Drug Administration beefed up its warnings about cardiac side effects of testosterone supplementation in 2015. And the findings of five studies released Tuesday aren't likely to clear up the confusion. They appear in JAMA , the journal of the American Medical Association and JAMA Internal Medicine. The studies are collectively called the Testosterone Trials (TTrials) and they compared a testosterone gel, AndroGel , against a placebo. The results are based on 788 men with below normal levels of testosterone studied at 12 sites across the country over a year. Overall, researchers saw improvements in bone density and bone strength in men who used a testosterone gel,Does Testosterone Improve Older Men's Health? It Dependshttp://ktep.org/post/does-testosterone-improve-older-mens-health-it-depends
102473 as http://ktep.orgTue, 21 Feb 2017 16:46:00 +0000Does Testosterone Improve Older Men's Health? It DependsPatti NeighmondMost of us suffer back pain at some point in our lives. In fact, it's one of the most common reasons people go to the doctor. Many of us also probably reach for medication. Now, new guidelines from the American College of Physicians say try exercise, yoga, or massage first. That's a pretty big change for both doctors and patients, but a welcome one, some doctors say. To come up with the recommendations, researchers analyzed more than 150 studies looking at what works and what doesn't when it comes to lower back pain. The type of acute pain we're talking about is your "garden variety back pain you might get after shoveling a little too much or over-exercising," says ACP president Dr. Nitin Damle — not the kind of pain that radiates down your leg and causes numbness, or the type which results from a major accident. In contrast to other types of pain, Damle says acute back pain usually goes away on its own. "The body will adjust, the inflammation will go down," he says. It may take a fewGot Back Pain? Try Yoga Or Massage Before Reaching For The Pillshttp://ktep.org/post/got-back-pain-try-yoga-or-massage-reaching-pills
102405 as http://ktep.orgMon, 20 Feb 2017 10:38:00 +0000Got Back Pain? Try Yoga Or Massage Before Reaching For The PillsPatti NeighmondIt's no surprise that most women with breast cancer consider hair loss one of the most traumatic aspects of chemotherapy. That has led to a big market for cooling caps, which are purported to limit hair loss. But cooling caps haven't been extensively studied in the U.S., and womens' experiences with the caps have been hit or miss. And just one cooling cap, the DigniCap , is approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Two studies released Tuesday show that at least half the women who used either the DigniCap or another scalp cooling system, the Paxman , lost less than 50 percent of their hair. "These findings appear to represent a major step forward in improving the quality of life of individuals with cancer," says Dr. Dawn Hershman, who studies the effects of cancer treatments at the Columbia University School of Medicine in New York. She wrote an editorial accompanying the studies in JAMA, the journal of the American Medical Association. But Hershman cautions that more study isCooling Cap May Limit Chemo Hair Loss In Women With Breast Cancerhttp://ktep.org/post/cooling-cap-may-limit-chemo-hair-loss-women-breast-cancer
102049 as http://ktep.orgTue, 14 Feb 2017 16:15:00 +0000Cooling Cap May Limit Chemo Hair Loss In Women With Breast CancerPatti NeighmondIt's tough to be a teenager. Hormones kick in, peer pressures escalate and academic expectations loom large. Kids become more aware of their environment in the teen years — down the block and online. The whole mix of changes can increase stress, anxiety and the risk of depression among all teens, research has long shown. But a recent study published in the journal Pediatrics suggests many more teenage girls in the U.S. may be experiencing major depressive episodes at this age than boys. And the numbers of teens affected took a particularly big jump after 2011, the scientists note, suggesting that the increasing dependence on social media by this age group may be exacerbating the problem . Psychiatrist Ramin Mojtabai and colleagues at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health wanted to know whether rates of depression among teens had increased over the past decade. They analyzed federal data from interviews with more than 172,000 adolescents. Between 2005 and 2014, theDepression Strikes Today's Teen Girls Especially Hardhttp://ktep.org/post/depression-strikes-todays-teen-girls-especially-hard
101958 as http://ktep.orgMon, 13 Feb 2017 09:29:00 +0000Depression Strikes Today's Teen Girls Especially HardPatti NeighmondMost of us have reached for a painkiller, at one time or another, only to discover the date on the label shows it has expired. But what does an "expiration" date on medicine really mean? Is it dangerous if you take it anyway? Less effective? It turns out that date stamped on the label actually means a lot. It's based on scientific evidence gathered by the manufacturer showing how long the drug's potency lasts. Companies expose their medications to different environments, different temperatures and humidity levels to see just how long it takes for the medication to degrade to the point that its effectiveness is compromised. The general rule, says pharmacist Mike Fossler, with the American College of Clinical Pharmacology , is that once a drug is degraded by 10 percent it has reached "the end of its useful life." If you take it months or even years past the expiration date, it's unlikely to do you any harm, he says; it just might not do you much good. That may not be a big deal if you'reWhen Old Medicine Goes Badhttp://ktep.org/post/when-old-medicine-goes-bad
101498 as http://ktep.orgMon, 06 Feb 2017 09:38:00 +0000When Old Medicine Goes BadPatti NeighmondSo far, more than half of all U.S. states have legalized marijuana for medical use, and eight (plus the District of Columbia) have legalized the drug for recreational use. Varieties of cannabis available today are more potent than ever and come in many forms, including oils and leaves that can be vaped, and lots of edibles, from brownies and cookies to candies — even cannabis gummy bears . A report published Thursday by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine analyzed more than 10,000 studies to see what could conclusively be said about the health effects of all this marijuana. And despite the drug's increasing popularity — a recent survey suggests about 22 million American adults have used the drug in the last month — conclusive evidence about its positive and negative medical effects is hard to come by, the researchers say. According to the report, that's at least partly because the federal drug enforcement agency's designation of the drug as a Schedule IMarijuana's Health Effects? Top Scientists Weigh Inhttp://ktep.org/post/marijuanas-health-effects-top-scientists-weigh
99989 as http://ktep.orgThu, 12 Jan 2017 22:48:00 +0000Marijuana's Health Effects? Top Scientists Weigh In